Print advertisement for an electron microscope and other electronics manufactured and sold by the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) for various scientific and industrial applications. The advertisement features an illustrated depiction of a bacteriologist viewing samples of the influenza virus under magnification. The accompanying text details the electron microscope's ability to make the infinitesimal visible through the use of electrons instead of light for illumination.

Viruses Through the Looking-Glass

The electron microscope brought about a paradigm shift in virology in the middle of the twentieth century.
early microscopes

The Evolution of the Microscope

The first compound microscopes date to 1590, but it was the Dutch Antony Van Leeuwenhoek in the mid-seventeenth century who first used them to make discoveries.
Victorian Microscopy

Under Victorian Microscopes, an Enchanted World

When it came time to describe what they saw under microscopes, Victorians couldn’t help but perceive a real-life fairyland.
Black and white drawing of an ant

What We Saw Under the Microscope’s Lens

The lens, a tool technology that helps make the invisible world visible, brought a revolutionary perspective to our descriptions of nature.